Boycott threat puts summit in jeopardy

The threat of a boycott by Arab nations is likely to cause the cancellation of a summit between the European Union and its Mediterranean neighbours that was to take place in Barcelona on 21 November.

It would be a second successive failure for the Union for the Mediterranean, a French-Spanish initiative that is supposed to strengthen the EU’s ties with the mainly Arab countries on the southern and eastern shores of the Mediterranean.

Meetings of ministers from the Union for the Mediterranean’s 43 member states to prepare for the Barcelona summit have been cancelled, although a meeting of trade ministers is still scheduled to take place in Brussels next Thursday (11 November).

“We are planning for the summit, but we are not convinced that it will go ahead,” a national diplomat from an EU member state said. Another diplomat said that his government’s assumption was that the summit “will not take place this year”.

Middle East talks

The summit was initially scheduled for June but was cancelled after Syria and Egypt – the latter a co-chair of the Union, together with France – said that they would boycott any meeting also attended by Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s foreign minister.

The official explanation put forward at the time was that talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians needed to make more progress. These talks have become more acrimonious, after Israel refused to extend a freeze on the construction of Jewish settlements in the occupied territories, and are now near collapse.

The Union for the Mediterranean has struggled to establish itself since it was launched by France in 2008.